DOJ announces creation of nationwide Fraud Detection Center
FBI investigating online company that advertises scans of 153 million driver’s licenses from the US and Canada
Europol announces that the US, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria have taken down a botnet that has affected 11 million computers and that has been running for twenty years
Canada sees fraud losses in the first six months of the year reach $351 million; nearly half of that is investment fraud (meaning crypto romance fraud)
Does shutting down huge scam compounds eliminate fraud? Its hard not to be happy that these massive centers that kidnap people and rob people across the world are being closed down. But my experience is that when large fraud centers are closed a raft of small ones quickly emerges. And former employees and managers have developed the skills and expertise to run these new operations. It looks like these frauds are simply moving to different countries or setting up shop clandestinely in smaller units. So the fight against fraud has to continue.
Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraud, romance fraud; BEC fraud, sweepstakes/lottery fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud, gift cards, free trial offer frauds, job scams, online shopping fraud, fake check fraud and crypto scams
Fraud News Around the world
- Puerto Rico: Nigerian man gets 95 months prison for laundering money from romance, BEC, and unemployment frauds; got $3.1 million
- Wyoming: 94 year old man arrested for acting as a money mule despite being warned by law enforcement
- Seattle: Five Chinese men indicted for laundering money from tech support scams hitting the elderly and sending it to Hong Kong and China; got $7.4 million
- Los Angeles: Two Chinese men get 78 and 56 months prison for scheme where they returned counterfeit Apple goods to Amazon for refunds; got $16.2 million
- GASA releases survey on scam in Canada
- A brief history of Charles Ponzi and his scheme
- South Korea sues dating site over deceptive claims about the kinds of members it has; $250,000 fine
- Baltimore: Man from India pleads guilty to tech support fraud; processed between $5 million and $15 million in victim funds
- Georgia prison inmate charged with telemarketing fraud
- India busts tech support call center pretending to be Apple customer support; 11 arrested
- Six crazy attempts to hire a killer that went wrong
- Man shoots and kills his cousin in argument over who had the spiciest enchiladas
Benefit Theft
- Maine: Man gets three years prison for ID theft to get SNAP food stamp benefits
- Illinois: Man charged with PPP fraud; go t$1.7 million
- New Mexico: Man and woman charged with ID theft to steal unemployment benefits
- Maine: Man gets 30 months prison for PPP fraud and counterfeiting US Treasury checks
- Hits Atlanta suburb of Norcross
- Attack on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
- Ransomware group that stole huge amounts of Data from Berlin agencies offers it for sale online
- Winona County, Minnesota, hit with attack and pays ransom
- Nigeria: Two men extradited to the US for online extortion of boys which led to suicides
- North Carolina: Man extradited from Nigeria and charged over extortion and suicide of teen boy
- San Francisco: Two men arrested for romance fraud; one pretended to be 49ers wide receiver